Have you hugged your spouse and children lately?
We need 4 hugs a day for survival.
We need 8 hugs a day for maintenance.
We need 12 hugs a day for growth.
Virginia Satir, Family Therapist.
This heartwarming story is from “Have You Hugged Anyone Lately?” by Parveen Chopra.
“The miraculous way in which hugging works is described in a touching story titled ‘The Hugging Judge’ in Chicken Soup for the Soul by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen. It is about Lee Shapiro, a retired judge, who realized that love is the greatest power there is and began offering everybody a hug.
“Some years ago he created the Hugger Kit. It contains 30 little red embroidered hearts. Shapiro would take out his kit, go around to people and offer them a little red heart in exchange for a hug. Soon, he became a minor celebrity for spreading his message of unconditional love.
“Once, accepting a challenge from a local television station in San Francisco, he went ahead and offered a hug to a six-foot-two, 230-pound bus driver, from a community known to be the toughest, crabbiest and meanest in the whole town.
Even as the TV cameras whirred, the bus driver stepped down and said: ‘Why not?’
“But Shapiro was queasy when invited to a home for the terminally ill, severely retarded and quadriplegic. Accompanied by a team of doctors and nurses, he went about his routine of hugging and handing out little red hearts till they reached a ward with the worst cases. The last person, named Leonard, whom Shapiro had to hug, was drooling on his big white bib; ‘There’s no way we can get across to this person,’ Shapiro thought.
“But finally he leaned down and gave Leonard a hug. This is what followed, in the author’s words: “All of a sudden Leonard began to squeal: ‘Eeeeehh! Eeeeehh!’
“Some of the other patients in the room began to clang things together. Shapiro turned to the staff for some sort of explanation, only to find that every doctor, nurse and orderly was crying.
“Shapiro asked the head nurse: ‘What’s going on?’
“Shapiro will never forget what she said: ‘This is the first time in 23 years we’ve ever seen Leonard smile.’
“It only takes a hug, a heartfelt and warm embrace, to change the lives of others.
Try it, it works.”- Love, Mom
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